


Frost and the Stolen Consorts

by LilTheHunger



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells, Cloud Roads - Martha Wells
Genre: Future Fic, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-20
Updated: 2012-03-20
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:39:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/366056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilTheHunger/pseuds/LilTheHunger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All grown up, Frost decides that the next best thing to having Moon as a consort will be having one of Moon's sons. She doesn't stand a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frost and the Stolen Consorts

**Author's Note:**

> This was written after I read THE SERPENT SEA, so note that there might be spoilers for people who haven't yet read beyond THE CLOUD ROADS.

     Winter Frostfeather, future reigning queen of the Indigo Cloud court -- or so she considered herself, though it seemed politic never to mention this aloud -- thought often of how the tales of her reign should begin.  By tradition, a queen's deeds were counted from the start of her time as sister queen, since daughter queens were generally foolish and made many ignoble mistakes.  Frost had made more than her share.  But now she was older and wiser, and she had been a daughter queen long enough; it was time for the next stage of her life to begin.  Which meant that it was time for her to take a consort.

     She had not given up on the idea of somehow taking Moon.  Moon was ideal in so many ways:  beautiful, intelligent, graceful, kind.  But most importantly, he was a survivor.  He could fight and fly fast, hunt better than any other Aeriat, and he would even fight queens if he had to.  He had faced the half-Fell monster Ranea and survived, which alone had won him Frost's love.  She had never forgotten crouching before the monstrous progenitor-queen while her rulers debated whether to keep Frost for breeding or just eat her right then and there, as they had already eaten Frost's mother and queen-aunts and clutch-sisters.  It had shamed her, infuriated her, to feel so helpless and weak.  And so Frost had decided then:  _if I grow up,_ since it had been by no means a certain thing, _I will make sure my children are stronger_.  It only made sense for her to take the consort who had helped bring about Ranea's defeat.

     Unfortunately, Jade had taken Moon before Frost could mature enough to even compete.  It was still not out of the question that Frost might yet take him; Indigo Cloud was danger-prone as courts went, and Jade had an unhealthy tendency to get into fights.  Not that Frost would ever _wish harm_ on a (soon-to-be) sister queen, but if Jade should ever happen to die in battle... well, Moon was fine and healthy and had whole centuries of life ahead of him.  Frost would only take him for the good of the court.  If she had to.  Of course.

     Until that day, Frost contented herself with the idea of taking a consort of Moon's bloodline, since she could not have Moon himself.  Conveniently, Jade had quickly produced a few clutches with Moon, and in the first clutch there had been _two_ pretty little consorts, which Frost viewed as serendipitous.  There had also been four fine strong warriors -- badly-needed in Indigo Cloud in the wake of all the court's troubles, but a sore disappointment to Frost's clutchmates Bitter and Thorn.  (They'd been happy enough with Jade's second clutch, which had produced a stunning three queens.  Frost was less pleased about this; she had liked being the only daughter queen.  But she supposed the court needed queens too.) 

     Frost had laid claim to the warriors quickly, and a daughter of Moon -- a tough little blue-scaled warrior called Horizon -- was now her right-hand lieutenant.  A fine start to a good strong faction.

     But Frost had a problem.  She'd kept a close watch on the two consorts of Jade's first clutch over the turns, trying to decide which of them had inherited the greater balance of Moon's desirable traits.  Yet although both boys were now twenty turns old -- and finally beginning to smell of delicious fertility -- Frost found herself unable to choose between them.  Because, infuriatingly, they were identical.

     It was an unusual problem, the mentors had explained when Frost consulted them on the matter.  That Jade's clutch had contained six babies was proof that Eclipse and Umbra, the consorts in question, were something called _twins_ :  one baby somehow split in half and grown into two.  Exactly the same, for all breeding purposes, which was good because they were both strong, healthy, lovely, and quick-witted. 

     And as if to emphasize their unusual nature, they were nearly inseparable.  As babies each had been unable to sleep if the other wasn't present; as fledglings, they had learned to fly from each other, before Moon or any of the other adults could teach them -- which had led to a few harrowing moments when the pair had simply jumped off a branch to fly or fail, in tandem.  They finished each others' sentences sometimes, and they looked so alike in either form that only years of careful study had allowed Frost to tell one from the other.  Both had thick black hair in groundling form, deep bronze skin, and Moon's stunning green eyes.  Eclipse was the more assertive of the pair; he stood a bit taller, held his spines higher, and often had a cocky air.  Umbra was no less confident, just quieter and quicker with a sharp-edged comment.  When they flew together, Frost could only watch them with her heart in her mouth, for their movements were so perfectly symmetrical that they might as well have been choreographed.  When they hunted -- because of course Moon always made certain any children of his would be self-sufficient -- it was Eclipse who drove the prey, but Umbra who made the kill.

     Magnificent, both of them.  And after twenty full turns of watching and waffling, Frost was still at a complete loss as to which one she wanted.  It was time to resort to drastic measures.  She decided to steal them both.

***

     "This is kind of stupid," said Thorn, when she informed her clutchmates of her plans.

     "Jade will kill you," added Bitter, nodding agreement with his brother.

     "She won't," said Frost, though she did feel a momentary pang of unease at the thought of fighting the older queen.  "Indigo Cloud needs our bloodline, since no other courts will give us consorts."

     "Indigo Cloud _has_ our bloodline," Thorn pointed out, while pointing to his own chest.  "Aurora's already asked if she can take me when she's old enough, and I've already said yes."  Aurora was one of the queens from Jade's second clutch.  Frost thought Aurora was obnoxious and had unattractively small spines, but Thorn seemed to like her well enough, so Frost withheld her opinion.

     "Bitter might leave, though," Frost noted, which made Bitter blush and look away, tucking his long black hair behind one ear.  He'd had a number of suitors from foreign courts over the past year, all of them drawn by visiting warriors' rumors of an exceptionally beautiful young consort at That Court Of Degenerate Nobodies.  "And until Aurora's big enough to actually take you, Thorn, you don't know that you'll end up with her.  Someone might steal you, another queen might fight her for you and win, or the court might trade you away; anything could happen.  I'm the only one who's definitely going to stay, so they need me."

     At this, Thorn scowled, though it was only true.  Consorts had less control over their fates than queens -- although Moon, as the court's First Consort, had made it clear he wasn't sending any Indigo Cloud consort anywhere against his will.  "But queens don't think, when they're in battle," Thorn insisted.  "Especially if you _steal their children_.  Come on, Frost, there has to be a better way."

     "Have you even asked Eclipse and Umbra what they want?"  Bitter glared at her.  "They like you.  Maybe one of them wants you more than the other -- "

     "That's why I want to steal them!  So we can work this out between us!"  Frost had thought this through very carefully.  She had to get the twins away from the safety and comfort of Indigo Cloud.  Only then would she be able to see each consort's real mettle, which would help her choose between them -- and only then, when they were forced to depend on her for their safety, could Frost know which of the twins would be happiest to be taken by her.  It was a brilliant plan, no matter what her naysaying-nag clutchmates thought.

     Bitter sighed, and Thorn slapped his forehead.  "I take it back," he said.  "This is _extremely_ stupid."

     Frost decided that her clutchmates had been spending entirely too much time with Stone.  In a huff, she left to resume her preparations.

     During an exploratory flight Frost had found the perfect place to stash two stolen consorts:  a large hollow bole in an unoccupied mountain-tree.  Not one implanted with a thorn seed, alas, so it was a wild tree, with few of the comforts she had grown used to.  It did have a lovely little spring-made waterfall nearby, along with a number of platforms conveniently stocked with grasseater species.

     With shelter secured, Frost then went to the teachers and asked how a wild bower could be made habitable.  She told Blossom about the tree-bole, but let her assume that Frost simply wanted a private getaway space.  "I know you want it just for yourself," Blossom said, "but you really should bring some Arbora to take a look at it.  No offense, sweet baby, but Aeriat are terrible at picking places to live.  I've always thought that's the whole reason they joined with us in the first place!  I mean, is this bower even structurally sound?  Will there be a draft?  And what will you do for light?  We could help you make it lovely, I'm sure."

     All good questions, none of which Frost had considered.  She scowled to herself.  "I'll fix it," she said, setting her jaw.  "If Arbora can do it, I can do it."

     Blossom got a pained look on her face, and she reached over to pet Frost's frills, which Frost tolerated only because Blossom had raised her.  "Well, good luck, then."

     From there, Frost went down into the workspaces.  From Tickle, one of the Arbora who liked making metal things, she begged a floor-dish to hold heating stones, and Copper, one of the younger mentors, agreed to heat some stones she'd found in a nearby river, though he complained mightily that there were plenty of stones all over the colony and she should just take some of those.  After all his complaining, she could only get him to spell one light-shell, and rather than risk another mentor's temper she decided to be content with that.  Dim light in the bower would be cozy, wouldn't it?  With coziness in mind, Frost next visited the weavers, and asked if they had any unused blankets.  Turned out they did -- dozens -- and before long Frost had more blankets than any ten consorts could use, let alone two.

     She carted her prizes to the bole over the next few weeks, in small packages that she could conceal by shifting from her Arbora form into winged, though it took some practice.  How did other Aeriat shift with clothing all the time?  Then, as best she could, she scouted under and around the bole, checking for obvious hazards.  The thing seemed firmly situated, having grown from the tree, and she couldn't see any signs of rot or structural danger.  She did worry about the waterfall, which ran close enough to the bole to have caused some growth of moss and other things that she thought vaguely might damage wood.  But after testing the bole -- by jumping around in it and listening carefully for any warning sounds of creaking or cracking wood -- she finally decided that it was safe.  Probably.  Safe _enough_ , anyway.

     So she kept at it.  And slowly, delightfully, her bower took shape.  She used the blankets to make a nest in one corner, where a dip in the wooden floor would be almost as comfortable as a shell-bed.  She positioned blankets over the bower's two entrances, and tacked them into the wood with pegs so as to block the wind and rainspray.  The extra blankets she hung around the space, making the rough walls look softer, prettier.  The brazier she positioned between two gnarled rootlike things, and with the warming stones, the little space quickly became toasty warm.  The stones would last several weeks, Copper had said -- just enough time, Frost felt, for her to choose and woo the perfect consort.

     Which meant it was time for stage two of her plan.

***

     She went to Moon and asked him for permission to take two unattached consorts out flying for an afternoon.

     Moon, who had come down to the teachers' level smelling heavily of sleep and Jade and sex, yawned as he reached for the teapot that sat on the nearby hearth.  "Why are you asking me?  You go flying with them all the time."  Then he paused, his gaze sharpening as he came more awake.  "Oh -- you're not taking Thorn and Bitter too?"

     "They can come, if they want," Frost lied, because she had ordered her clutchmates not to follow her on pain of death.  "But Eclipse and Umbra don't need chaperones, do they?  They can chaperone each other."

     For a moment Moon eyed her, and Frost began to wonder if he'd somehow seen through her great plan.  "Should you be asking Jade about this?" he asked.  "Formally, that is."

     "Oh, no, no."  Quickly Frost waved her hands, hoping he could not smell the sudden nervous sweat in her mane.  "It's nothing like that.  I just thought the consorts would be interested in an afternoon's flight to stretch our wings, since they don't get to go out much and the warriors just slow them down."  Moon looked skeptical; he wasn't buying it.  Frost added, "Of course, if you _want_ me to ask Jade, I can."

     "No need," he said at last, and inwardly Frost exhaled in relief.  "Go ahead."  And she hurried away, feeling Moon's eyes on her back until she left the chamber.

     She found Umbra in the mentors' library, per his usual habit.  He liked reading research scrolls and stories of the court's past.  Most likely Eclipse was nearby, pestering the mentors; he preferred talking to reading.  Umbra spotted Frost as she came in and closed the book he'd been scrolling through.  "Hi there," he said, sitting back and stretching as though he'd been there awhile.  Frost tried hard not to ogle him noticeably as he did so, but he gave her a secretive little smile, as if he'd noticed but was simply too polite to mention it.  "Where have you been, lately?  I hardly see you around anymore."

     "Off doing queen things," she said airily, sitting down on the other side of the table.  This close, Umbra's scent was heady and rich:  the sweet herbs of bedding and tea, the oil he'd used after his last bath, and all the scent-markers that alerted a queen to the presence of a healthy, fertile, untaken young male of the species.  It took everything Frost had to pretend casualness when she folded her hands and rested her chin on them, curling her tail 'round the stool.  "Where's Eclipse?"

     "Right here," said Eclipse as he sauntered in from a side-room.  "Great timing, Frost; the mentors were just about to throw me out again."

     "If you wouldn't annoy them so much, they would let you stick around more," said Umbra, smiling fondly at his brother.  Eclipse smirked and came over to lean against Umbra's shoulder, resting his chin on the top of the other consort's head.  He smelled of tea and oil too, but also fresh meat from a recent meal, so that together the two of them blended into an absolutely mouthwatering scent-combination that Frost thought of as Sex, Come Get Some.  Then they both looked at her and smiled identical knowing, welcoming smiles, and Frost had to close her eyes lest she jump the table and fly off with one in each arm.  Dignity, she reminded herself.  Dignity.

     "So what's up?" asked Eclipse.

     "Flying," she made herself say, and took a deep breath to focus before she faced them again.  "Do you want to go?  With me?"

     "Sure," said Umbra.

     "Anywhere in particular?" asked Eclipse.

     "Actually, yes.  I found an interesting place I wanted to show you."  She said this casually, examining her claws in the process.  "Got anything else to do today?"

     There was a pause as they looked at each other, and then Eclipse looped his arms 'round Umbra's neck.  His smile had widened.  "Not really.  We're always ready to see interesting things with you, Frost."

     Frost paused, narrowing her eyes swiftly at Eclipse, but his expression was pure innocence.  "Good," she said slowly, and pushed herself up.  "Then let's go."

     They flew out just as the morning clouds faded, leaving clear sky and air that felt like silk under Frost's wings.  She took the higher layer of air, from which she could see farther and guard both consorts more effectively, and from which she could descend upon either of them at her pleasure -- not that she would do so, of course, but she liked contemplating it.  Below, Umbra and Eclipse flew in that uncanny near-total synchronization that all the Aeriat remarked upon:  wingbeats syncopated, trading places in the lead whenever they flew against a headwind, flying side-by-side when the wind was calm or at their backs.  Frost could not help admiring them as she had done many times before:  their glossy black scales, their near-perfect conformation, and the bronze undertone that had become the mark of Moon's bloodline.  No one knew where Moon had come from, and Indigo Cloud still endured some censure from other courts because of this lack -- but not much, because even the most pedigree-obsessed foreign queen could plainly see that the court thrived with the addition of his children to the lines.

     And it would thrive further, Frost was certain, with the addition of her own fine old Sky Copper bloodline.  If she could just _decide_.

     Turning a lazy roll onto his back in the air, Eclipse abruptly shifted into his groundling form.  Before he could fall, Umbra slipped beneath him, flattening his spines and steadying his wingbeats into a glide so that Eclipse could rest on his back for a few moments.  For a moment Frost marveled at this; she had never seen another Aeriat do such a thing.  It was ingenious; the sort of thing that would allow them to extend their flying range greatly, if they could spell each other while still on the wing.  But which of them could Frost commend for such cleverness?  The one who had entrusted himself to another without fear?  Or the one who affirmed that trust in wing and spine and skill?

     "Where's this place you want to show us?" Eclipse called to her.  "We're bored!"  Then he flipped, rolling off Umbra's back as Umbra briefly folded his wings shut; an instant later he had shifted back to his winged form and climbed back into their usual paired formation.

     Frost grinned, showing her fangs.  Bored, were they?  She'd give them something to do, then.  "Follow me!"

     She led them down into the forest, and deliberately flew a circuitous route through the trees to reach her bole-bower.  They followed her closely, laughing as if it was a game, showing no sign of weariness or clumsiness.  When Frost finally landed at the entrance of the bower and stepped aside, they flew in and backwinged to a halt together -- something no other pair of Aeriat would've attempted, lest they foul each other on the landing.  They, however, were perfectly fine.

     And perfectly beautiful.  And perfectly _hers_.  As soon as they'd folded their wings and shifted back to groundling, Frost pulled the covering-blanket over the hole they'd used to enter and tacked it into place.  The other entrance was still open, letting in the bright afternoon light, but Frost quickly moved to this entrance and positioned herself in front of it, putting her hands on her hips and grinning.

     They looked at her, then at each other, then back at her.  "All right," said Eclipse, putting his hands on his hips.  Beside him, Umbra folded his arms, looking impatient.  "Why don't you finally tell us what this is all about, Frost, since you can't keep a secret for anything."

     "This," said Frost with a grin, "is me stealing the both of you.  You'd better settle in and get comfy, because I'm not letting either of you leave."  And she spread her wings and spines aggressively, to show that she meant business.

     They looked at each other again.  Umbra's mouth fell open.  Eclipse had a quintessentially Moon-ish look of _has she gone crazy or have I?_ on his face.

     Then they both fell to the floor, laughing their asses off.

***

     They were still laughing an hour later.  By this time, Frost had retreated to sit by the brazier in a disgruntled sulk.

     "Look," said Eclipse at last, once he had managed to pick himself up off the floor, wipe his tears, and assume something resembling an upright posture again.  (Umbra was still curled up beside him, snickering and occasionally pounding the floor with a fist.)  "It's not that we don't, er, appreciate this, Frost -- "

     "You're not supposed to _appreciate_ it," she snapped, lashing her tail a little.  "I'm a queen.  I just _stole_ you.  You're supposed to be..."  She waved a hand, frustrated.

     "What?  Scared?"  At that, Umbra dissolved into fresh giggles, and even Eclipse looked like he was struggling not to laugh.  "Come on, Frost, we've known you since we were born.  You wouldn't hurt us."

     "I could!  If I wanted to!"

     At this, Eclipse grew outright skeptical.  "Well, sure.  Maybe.  But you _wouldn't_ , is the point.  I mean, you stole us because you wanted us, right?"  He cocked his head, and Frost did not mistake it; something in his smile stopped being derisive and turned more teasing.  "You like us."

     Frost's face grew hot.  "Of _course_ I like you.  That's the _problem_.  So I brought you here to, to..."  She faltered silent.

     "To what?  To scare us, okay, but this is supposed to make you figure out whether you want to take us?  Somehow?"

     Phrased like that, it made a lot less sense than it had in Frost's head.  She scowled, lashing her tail harder, and decided to answer with conviction, the way a proper reigning queen should.  "Yes."

     Umbra rolled onto his back, holding his sides and practically screaming laughter.  Eclipse covered his face with one hand, but his shoulders were shaking.  And Frost was two seconds away from deciding that she didn't want _either_ of them.

     She made herself stay, however, glaring at them, because there was nothing else she could do.  If she went back to Indigo Cloud without them, Jade would kill her.  And what kind of queen would she be, abandoning two of the court's finest young consorts in an unknown part of the forest?  So she endured their laughter as best she could, rising with what little dignity she could muster to set the light-shell in place as the forest darkened outside, and night began to fall.

     After awhile, Umbra finally sat up, leaning against Eclipse; he was still grinning, but seemed to have finally exhausted his own laughter.  "Frost," he said, "what are we supposed to eat?  Did you even think that far?"

     Annoyed, Frost rose and went to her stash of supplies, then pulled out the large basket she'd gotten from the Arbora the evening before.  She set it down in front of them and stepped back, folding her arms as Umbra lifted the cloth.  The basket contained several kinds of fruit, flatbread, sealed pots of cooked roots, and a neatly-tied parcel of dried meat.  She'd even stolen a pressed cake of Stone's favorite tea.  "Satisfied?"

     Umbra inhaled, which did a little to salve Frost's pride.  "You _did_ plan this, then."

     "What did you think, I was lying?"

     "No, not lying."  Umbra lifted the tea cake to his nose and inhaled appreciatively; Eclipse leaned over to sniff it too, and made an "o" with his mouth as he recognized the scent.  "We just thought this was another one of your cockeyed plans, like that time you tried to get all the fledglings in the nursery to help you establish a separate court in another tree.  Stone's going to gut you for this, by the way."

     "I can handle Stone," Frost said, also with conviction, although she had already spent a sleepless night wondering how badly he would beat her when he found out what she'd done.  "And that separate court thing was just childish silliness."

     "'Frost Moon court.'  Right.  Moon's nowhere near as patient as we are, you know.  But your little crush on him was kind of cute."  Eclipse snorted and grabbed a piece of fruit over his twin's shoulder.  Frost fought back a blush.

     "And what about that time a daughter queen from Emerald Twilight insulted you, and you started asking everybody what would happen if you just flew to their court and challenged her."  Umbra nibbled a piece of meat, ignoring the flare of Frost's spines.  "You were all set to go, too, 'til Jade came and talked you down from _starting a war_."

     "I still could've killed her," Frost muttered.  "Can't believe that little bitch had the nerve to eyeball Bitter."

     "Or that time you -- "

     "Enough!" Frost snapped, clenching her fists.  "All of that was a long time ago!  I _did_ plan this, and I _did_ steal you, and I did a damn good job of it, too!  But if that's how you're going to be about it, then I'm not going to take _either_ of you.  Except _back home_.  Come on!"

     "It's night time now," said Eclipse, chewing on a piece of fruit.  He sat back and stretched out beside the brazier in total unconcern, with the basket of food beside him.  "We're tired.  We can't fly back that far in the dark on no food and no rest.  Let's go back in the morning."

     "Right," said Umbra, around a mouthful of meat.  He adjusted himself to lean on his brother, head pillowed on Eclipse's lap.  "We're just consorts, after all.  Come eat something; there's plenty."

     "I'm fine."  Stubbornly Frost turned back to the open entry-hole, folding her arms and gazing out at the moonlit suspended forest.  Through the shadowy trees, she could hear the croons and calls of many creatures, the cree and crick of insects, and the soft sussuruss of leaves shifting in the wind.  It was a beautiful area; perfect for a court even if there was no mountain thorn here.  And it would have been, she thought with some irritation, an ideal place for a young queen to woo her first consort.  How had it all gone so wrong?

     The boys ate for awhile, then talked quietly -- banal stuff, gossip mostly, which was what consorts never seemed to tire of.  Just as Frost began to calm down, Umbra came over and touched her shoulder.  "We left some food for you," he said gently, in such a subdued tone that Frost began grudgingly to forgive him for his earlier laughter.  "Come back and eat Frost, please."

     It was the 'please' that mollified her.  So Frost went over to sit down across from them and finished off the fruit and roots.  They'd left most of the meat for her, too, perhaps out of deference to her status or perhaps just because they didn't like it; she made herself nibble a few pieces even though it was beneath a queen to eat dried rations when there was no famine.  And she did not look at either of them the whole time that she ate, because she was still so furious she could hardly speak.  When she was done she remained sitting there, knees drawn up and arms folded around them, hoping that she radiated queenly affront and not just a sulk.

     With a glance at each other that Frost could not interpret, the boys sighed and rose as one.  "We're going to bed," said Eclipse, gesturing toward the nest of cushions and blankets Frost had so carefully arranged.  Where she'd hoped to conceive her first clutch, she thought bitterly -- but obviously _that_ wasn't going to happen now.  "Join us?"

     It was, all things considered, terribly forward of him.  They were alone out here, without chaperones; if Frost had been a lesser queen, she would've taken his words for an invitation to sex.  But Frost was not a lesser queen, and she would comport herself like a reigning queen should.  "No, thank you," she said stiffly.  "I'll stay awake and keep watch."

     Eclipse sighed, scowling and putting hands on his hips.  "Frost, even queens need to rest.  It's not like this place used to be a Fell hive; there's no scent of danger anywhere.  And how are you going to fly us back tomorrow if you don't sleep?"

     "I'll nap a little.  I've done it before while keeping watch; in my Arbora form I can even get a little rest that way.  It'll be enough for me to get you back to the hometree."

     "But Frost -- "  But Eclipse cut himself off as Umbra put a hand on his arm.  With a sigh, Eclipse subsided, and both boys retreated to the comfort of the nest, curling up together.  Here Frost felt some guilt, for they were asleep in moments; proof that the long flight really had tired them out.

     Just as well she was taking them back in the morning, she decided, and curled her tail 'round herself, settling into her Arbora form.  And if she sat farther from the brazier than was strictly necessary, nursing her wounded pride and sense of hurt on the cold night air, it was not because she was sulking.  Queens did not sulk.

***

     Frost awakened the instant the huge creature's head blotted out the moonlight coming through the open hole.

     It was already reaching for her when she gasped and shifted and rolled away from its clawed, five-fingered hand.  Its smell hit her in the next instant, predator-rank but curiously muted -- and when Frost unsheathed her claws to rake down its stick-thin, long forearm, she realized why.  It was covered in dried metal-mud.  Which meant that this particular monster was smarter than it looked.

     Her claws scored its flesh easily, deep enough to scrape bone.  The creature roared in pain and fury, snatching its arm back -- but an instant later something else darted at Frost's face.  On pure instinct she twitched aside, and it thunked into the wood behind her with enough force to make the bole's floor vibrate.  Alarmed, she stared at the thing, realizing with some horror that it was the creature's _tongue_ :  many paces long, lightning-swift, and barbed at the tip.  When it snatched the thing back into its mouth, Frost saw smoke curl from the hole it left in the wood.  Some kind of venom.

     But as Frost opened her mouth to shout a warning, hoping Eclipse and Umbra would wake up and get outside before the thing managed to spear them, two black blurs shot past her and leaped on the monster at full speed, tackling it back and out of the bole entrance.  _Oh, no.  They wouldn't!_

     But they had.  As Frost scrambled to her feet and ran to the entrance, she beheld the horrifying sight of the monster -- a huge pale-skinned thing with a segmented body, the upper half of which was now swaying loose from the tree while its lower half held on -- roaring and flailing about with two consorts attached to its torso.  Frost launched herself from the bole and curved down after it, barely dodging as it launched its barbed acid-tongue at her again -- but then the tongue whipped wide as Eclipse snarled and slashed off one of its stick-arms.  It had several dozen more along that side of its body, but clearly the loss of even one arm still hurt.  It keened again when Umbra took another arm on the beast's other side, and thrashed its body in an attempt to fling them off.  Clearly, it had hoped to catch them asleep; it was a scavenger, not a hunter, and now that its gambit had failed, it was in real trouble.

     In desperation, it launched its tongue again, and this time whipped the thing wildly, spraying steaming venom everywhere, which made Frost halt her stooping run.  Umbra slashed it across its many-ribbed torso and the tongue suddenly curled toward him, arrowing in before he'd even noticed it was coming.  Even as Eclipse shouted a warning, however, Frost was there.  She grabbed the tongue-tip an instant before it would have speared Umbra's wing, and ripped it off. 

     The pain hit in the same instant, like she'd plunged her hand into a fire, but with an angry hiss Frost ignored it and took off again.  It could've killed Umbra!  Furious, she curved around, beating her wings hard for speed, and hit the creature just behind its ugly wedge-shaped head.  She slashed both its great compound eyes -- it screamed then, louder than before -- and then she hissed into whatever might have passed for its ears:  "This was supposed to be _romantic_!" 

     With that, she grabbed its head in both hands, twisted, and tore the whole thing clean off.

     Its screams stopped abruptly, and the lower legs of its body let go all at once.  Frost leapt free as it began to fall; so did Umbra and Eclipse.  The head fell last, Frost saw with some satisfaction, hitting branches and bouncing off the tree's trunk several times on the way down.

     And then there was a sort of... disjunct. 

     Frost blinked and found herself on the tree again, this time at the waterfall just outside.  She stood half-slumped against Eclipse, who held her up as Umbra held her hand under the stream of water.  The coolness of the water was wonderful, because her hand still felt like it had hot coals under the skin.

     Another jump and she was inside the bole, sitting amid the bed's cushions while Eclipse rubbed something that stung all over her hand.  She tried to snarl at him -- it _hurt_ , damn it -- but he only snarled back.  "Quiet," he snapped, his voice tight with worry.  "Umbra saw this in a mentor's book once; we think it'll stop the poison from killing you."  Beyond Eclipse, Frost saw Umbra in the bole's entrance, keeping watch outside but also periodically glancing back at her, anxiety in every line of his body.

     Then there was another of those curious leaps of time, and when Frost opened her eyes again, she was lying down, with Umbra curled 'round her.  Confused, she lifted her hand and saw that it had been wrapped in strips from one of the blankets.  When she sniffed at this, the strong aroma of fruit peels made her nose wrinkle; they'd made a poultice of the leftovers from their earlier meal.  Amazingly, her hand felt much better; the burning was gone now, and only a faint dull throb of pain remained.

     "Feeling better?"  Frost lowered her hand to see Eclipse crouching nearby.  He'd closed the other bole entrance with a tacked-up blanket -- and Frost could smell metal-mud again, fresh this time.  Sunlight shone through the blanket, but it was oddly mottled in places; she realized Eclipse must've smeared metal-mud all over both blankets in order to camouflage their scent and presence in the tree.  A good way to prevent attacks by more predators.

     "Yes," she said, trying to sit up -- and failing.  She could move, but only a little; it was as though her muscles refused to obey her.  "What -- "

     "That thing nearly killed you," Umbra murmured beside her.  He had not opened his eyes; deep lines of weariness marked his face.  "You were barely breathing.  We think it paralyzed you.  I had to try and save you with no mentor around, and nothing but a half-remembered book passage to go on.  And _fruit peels_."  Blearily he opened one eye to glare at her.  "If you ever scare me that much again, Frost, I will kill you, I swear.  I'll do it in your sleep if I have to."

     "Sorry," Frost blurted without thinking.  At that, Umbra opened both eyes.  He stared at her, then at his twin.

     "She's not still delirious," Eclipse said, wryly.  He reached up then and stroked Frost's forehead with a tenderness she had only ever seen him show his twin.  "There's no fever.  _We're_ not hallucinating; I heard it too."

     "I've apologized before," Frost grumbled.  Though she could not remember when.

     "Ah, you're getting cranky again.  Now I know you're getting better."  With a heavy sigh, Eclipse moved to lie on Frost's other side, while Umbra put his head down again.  "Sleep.  We've been here all day; might as well stay another night.  And since Umbra and I are going to have to split the watch, we need to get some rest before full dark."

     "It's not safe to stay here," Frost said, frowning even as the combined warmth of the boys made her drowsy.  "We should find another tree."

     "We scouted; this is the most defensible place for us to hole up," Umbra murmured, his voice heavy with impending sleep.  "You did pick a good spot, Frost; that thing just had more balls than brains.  And anyway, we figure not many scavengers will come after us with its corpse down there somewhere, free for the taking."

     "Relax," Eclipse added.  "Let us take care of you for once."

     That didn't sound at all appropriate for a queen to do, and Frost didn't like it.  But then Eclipse pressed close, his scent filling her thoughts and his warmth lulling her into contentment, and before long she had fallen asleep again.

***

     When Frost woke again, alert and feeling very much like herself, both boys were still with her.  She sat up to see that sunlight warmed one of the tacked-up blankets; it was morning.  They'd fallen asleep and kept no watch.  Only luck -- and perhaps metal-mud -- had kept them safe through the night.  _Consorts_ , she thought ruefully, then sighed and lay back down.

     "You're feeling better," murmured Umbra.  He reached for her hand and held it up, which Frost permitted because she was curious too.  It felt fine.  She used a claw to cut the bandages, peeled them and the fruit peels off, and was pleased to see nothing but a pink, healing raw mark across the palm, where the venom had burned her.

     "Much better," she said, and blinked as she realized she'd sat up with no trouble.  "The paralysis is gone, too."

     "We'll have to nominate Umbra for honorary mentor status, then, when we get back."  Eclipse was awake too.  He shifted closer and nuzzled her shoulder, which made Frost blush again.  "I'm never going to laugh at him for spending all day in the mentor library again."

     "Yes, you will," Umbra muttered.  "Because you're an idiot.  But _Frost_ never laughed at me."  He shifted closer too, then leaned in and nipped her, very gently, beneath one ear.  "Frost understands us."

     "Frost understands us," Eclipse agreed, gazing at his twin and smiling.  Then he looked up at her with the same tenderness in his eyes, and Frost's breath caught in her throat, so badly did she want him in that instant. 

     Problem was, she still wanted Umbra too.

     As if hearing this thought, Eclipse lifted an eyebrow.  "Frost can be stubborn, though."

     "Mmm, very stubborn."  Umbra laid a hand on her belly, stroking little circles -- but his hand was unmistakably, gradually, working its way downward.  Frost lifted her head to watch this, torn between fascination and the vague awareness that she should protest.  "I suppose we're going to have to be stubborn too."

     "Yes, I think so," Eclipse agreed.  And then, as Frost belatedly realized that these cryptic statements were some sort of conversation, he leaned closer and bit Frost's shoulder gently.  She started.  Did that mean --

     Then Umbra bit her other shoulder, and Frost froze in utter confusion. 

     The bites meant an offer of sex, and she wanted to accept those offers.  Oh, how she wanted to accept.  But this would not be like the often-fumbling, often-sweet efforts she'd made with various warriors over the past few turns.  If either Eclipse or Umbra slept with her, she could get a clutch unless she worked hard to prevent it.  And she didn't want to prevent it.  But which one?  Which _one_?

     Eclipse groaned in exasperation, and bit her again, this time too hard to be titillating.  "Frost, you are an _idiot_.  Has it even occurred to you yet that we let you drag us out here because we thought you got it?"

     That cleared Frost's head, a little.  "Wait, you _let me_ drag you -- "

     Umbra kept stopped his hand on her lower belly, resting it there, and laid his cheek on her shoulder, sighing across her chest.  "And we put up with all this foolishness about you stealing us because we thought it was sweet, that you'd made a nest for our first time.  We thought you knew."

     It was hard to think through pure lust, but Frost did it anyway, because queens were always supposed to.  "Knew?  Wh-what?"

     "We want you," they said, in such unison that it was eerie -- or would have been, if Frost weren't so used to it.  They both sat up to glare down at her.  Umbra looked mussed and hungry and frustrated; Eclipse just looked frustrated.  "We _like_ you."

     Then they spoke individually.  "We do everything together, Frost; we don't want to be separated."  That was Eclipse. 

     Almost before he stopped speaking, Umbra then blurted, "So will you _please_ just take us both, already?"

     Frost's mouth fell open.  _Both_ of them? 

     Queens took two consorts all the time -- but not at once.  She had never heard of such a thing, not in any story or mentor-history.  She hadn't even realized it could be done.  Queens were supposed to decide things, not waffle endlessly.  Queens were supposed to negotiate and make wise choices, not just greedily demand more than their share.

     But...  Frost gazed up at them, their faces so alike, though she could still tell them apart easily.  She reached up and drew a finger over Umbra's lips, caressed Eclipse's cheek with the backs of her claws, and they purred for her in unison.  Umbra closed his eyes and exhaled, as Eclipse turned his head to nuzzle her fingers.  And Frost realized:  perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing to be indecisive.  Perhaps she _could_ do something that no other queen had ever done.  And perhaps, just this once, there was nothing wrong with her being greedy.

     She growled in warning, and they grinned back.  Then she pounced and they fell back for her, so obviously eager that she could hardly restrain herself -- and so she didn't.  It took some doing, figuring out how to mate with two consorts at once; there were logistical quandries to be worked out, and they spent as much time giggling over that as growling in pleasure.  But that was all right.  Frost believed firmly in working hard for what she wanted. 

     And when the mentors eventually told the story of her reign's beginning, she wanted them to have something worth telling.

***

     When Frost finally woke up, the consorts were just coming in from having hunted and bathed.  A fresh baby loper, already bled, lay on a pallet of broad leaves for Frost; they must have eaten their own kills already. 

"Hey," said Eclipse when he noticed Frost sitting up.  Umbra, busy tacking the cloth back into place, glanced at her and brightened.

     "Hey," said Frost, looking over them in awe and delight.  They were both naked, perfect bronze skin gleaming and damp from the waterfall.  They were both _hers_ , their scents already altered by her mark.  She could hardly believe her fortune.

     "The day's gotten late," said Umbra, grinning and strolling over in the most blatantly suggestive way Frost had ever seen.  Her mouth watered.  He stopped in front of her, with a sly look on his face that said he knew full well what her answer would be even as he asked the question.  "What do you want to do?  We could probably get back if we left now; we'd get there after nightfall, but..."  Beside him, Eclipse stepped up as well, hands on his hips, grinning.

     "Nah," said Frost, rising from the nest to grab each of them by the hand and drag them back down.  They laughed at first, and then there was no more laughing for quite some time.

     Afterward Frost ate, since mating with two consorts at once was hard work.  When she had thrown out the remains of the loper and rinsed herself clean in the waterfall, she padded quietly back over to the nest, stopping to gaze down at her two prizes.  They were asleep already; they'd earned the rest.  But they had left a space between them just big enough for her.

***

     When the scent of dawn slipped past the metal-mud of the blanket the next morning, Frost got up.  There wasn't much food left in the basket, so she left that for the boys.  Then she left the bole and climbed up to its topside for a look at the weather.  Privately, she was hoping the weather would be terrible, so that they could stay here for one more day -- but alas, the sky was clear and lovely.

     And to Frost's utter shock, when she reached the top of the bole, Jade and Moon and Stone were all lying there, just waking up themselves.

     "Oh, hey," said Stone, stretching and grimacing as his joints popped loudly.  "Thought you three would never quit."

     "Were we like that when we were young?"  Moon rubbed his face, then chuckled as Jade dragged him close and nipped the back of his neck.

     "We're like that now," she reminded him.  "Just quieter."

     "I... you..."  Frost, hanging onto the side of the bole, had to tighten her claws lest she fall off.  "What are you...?  When did you...?"

     "Last night," said Stone.  "But the mentors augured your location three days ago.  Everybody knew you were building this little love nest when you started taking supplies and asking about bower-building.  We just came to find you after you'd been gone so long without sending a message.  Really, Frost, you have to be more responsible now."

     "Yes," said Jade primly.  She let go of Moon and sat up so that she could look down her nose at Frost, and Frost, caught in a subordinate position, could do nothing but climb all the way up onto the bole and sit down before her with spines flattened in submission.  "Among other things, you'll need to make a formal request for Eclipse and Umbra now that you've stolen them, or I might decide to be offended.  Even though I knew you were going to take them anyway."  She shrugged.

     Frost stared at her, too stunned to hide it.  "You _knew_?"

     Moon coughed, and Stone didn't even bother to hide his laugh, although to her credit Jade just looked annoyed.  "Frost, Eclipse and Umbra have been trying to get you to take them for months now.  I'm glad you finally did it -- you were driving them crazy.  It's impolite to frustrate consorts like that.  Now."  She got to her feet, dusting herself off, and offered a hand to Moon to help him to his feet.  Stone got up too, stretching again and yawning.  "Come on back today, before Pearl makes an issue of it.  I'll expect you by sunset."

     With that, she fell off the bole into the open air, winging swiftly in the direction of Indigo Cloud.

     Frost got up to stare after her, feeling as though she'd been side-swiped by a kethel.  "Everyone _knew_?"

     "Well, not everyone."  Moon put his hands on his hips, gazing after Jade fondly; he half-spread his own wings, testing the air.  "You did a good job of hiding what you were up to, at least from the Aeriat.  But I know my boys."  He glanced back at Frost, then just shook his head, amused.  "They picked you a long time ago.  You didn't stand a chance."

     Then he took off.  Frost stood there, unsure of what to do next until Stone walked over and smacked her, hard, in the back of the head.

     "That's for my tea, you brat," he said, looking highly annoyed.  "You're lucky it wasn't my last cake."  Then he shifted, still grumbling, and flew off behind Jade and Moon into the morning sky.

     Rubbing her sore head and nursing her bruised pride, Frost made her way back down into the bole to find Umbra up and dressed, tucking the heating stones into a sack he'd made from one of the blankets.  On the other side of the bole, Eclipse was sitting up in their nest, yawning and stretching; he nodded to Frost and leaned over to reach for his clothing.

     "We need to talk," she declared, and told them what their parents had said.

     "Of course we knew you were up to something," Eclipse said.  He had dressed while she talked, and now sat on a hump in the floor near Frost.  Umbra was back in the nest, curled up to laugh his ass off some more.  "You suck at keeping secrets, Frost.  You get all stiff-backed and spine-ruffled because it offends you to do something beneath a queen's dignity.  And when you told us you wanted to go flying -- "  He rolled his eyes in perfect imitation of Moon at his worst.  "If you didn't want us to guess what you were about, you should've worked up to it gradually, invited us out for harmless flights before that.  But no, you had to get Moon involved, and tell half the Arbora, and make a big production of it."

     "Half the Arbora..." Umbra blurted, then subsided into laughter again.  Frost flicked her tail and turned her back on him, irritated.

     "If you wanted me to take you," she said to Eclipse, punctuating each work precisely so he would know how annoyed she was, "why didn't you just _say_ so?"

     "We would've!  But then you would've gotten all spine-ruffled about _that_.  Moon said you probably wanted to take us in a way you could brag to other queens about, so we should just wait.  So we did.  For _three whole turns_ , Frost, we waited.  It got so bad that Umbra and I had started trying to figure out ways we could get lost in a storm with you, or trapped on an island out at sea, or _something_ , so you'd finally take the hint."

     Three turns?  They'd wanted her for three turns?  "I was trying to decide between you," Frost said, flustered.

     That actually surprised them into silence for a moment.  Eclipse stared at her, his mouth falling open; Umbra stopped laughing and sat up.  "You only wanted one of us?"  he asked.  Frost felt instant guilt at the worry in his voice.

     "No, no!  I wanted both of you.  I just..."  She waved her hands, unable to articulate her own reasoning.  "I just didn't think I could.  Have you.  Both."  She sighed and slumped.  There was no way she would ever live this down.

     The boys looked at each other.  Then she heard Umbra get up and pad over.  A moment later, he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, leaning his head against the back of her wing.  It was the same thing Eclipse had done to him on the flight over, trusting her not to stab him with her spines or obey the instinctive urge to shake him off her back, and realizing this made Frost feel flustered all over again.

     Then Eclipse slipped off the hump and knelt at her feet, reaching up to take hold of her hips reverently. 

     "We like that you want us both," Umbra whispered into her mane.  "That's why we wanted you; you're the only queen we've met who didn't want to separate us."

     And while Frost reeled from that, Eclipse nuzzled her belly, igniting a surge of heat with just the friction of his nose.  "And now we have you.  You're not getting away from us."

     "I was just trying to be a good queen," Frost blurted.  So hard to think, wedged between the two of them like this.  "Indigo Cloud still has -- "  Umbra bit her gently on the wing joint and she nearly forgot how to speak.  " -- a consort shortage.  To take two..."

     "We're a package deal," said Umbra, simply.

     "And since when has it bothered you to be greedy?"  Eclipse stood, stepping close enough to press himself along the length of her.  He turned his head aside, offering her his neck; with a soft growl Frost wrapped arms around him and grazed her teeth over his soft groundling skin.  He uttered a low groan and melted against her in a way that made her want to toss him into the nest right then and there.

     "We don't have to go back right away, do we?" asked Umbra, so plaintively that Frost's heart clenched and she turned.

     "No," she said.  "Not right away." 

     Then she lifted them, one in each arm, and carried her consorts back to bed.

***

     Stone hit Frost again when they got back, "just for being a pain in the ass," he said, but mostly it was because Frost was in such a daze that she didn't duck fast enough.

     She found herself curiously unable to get upset about it.  Her clutchmates remarked on her strange calmness, in tones of mingled derision and envy; Thorn said Frost had never been so quiet, and Bitter said she had never looked so happy -- not since before Sky Copper's destruction.  That surprised her a little.

     But as Frost walked into the queens' level that night, and saw Pearl give her a brief, casual nod-between-equals; as she went up to the consorts' level unescorted for the first time, and saw Moon step out of his bower and smile; and as she walked into the bower that her consorts shared, and took their hands, and let them pull her down to lie between them... she realized Bitter had been wrong.  This was not the happiest she had been since her life ended and began again.  It was the happiest she had been _ever_.  And that was not at all a bad way to start the tales of her future reign.

**Author's Note:**

> There's going to be a third book in this series! I'm so excited; can't wait to see what Wells does with it. Of course, that book might make this story non-canon, but oh well if so. I try not to write about stuff that I think Wells will ever tackle; I'd rather see her take on it. But I figure this is set far enough after the Books of the Raksura -- 20 turns or so -- that it's safe to play with. Also note: I figure Moon's children would be a bit more talkative, and better at communicating, than he is!


End file.
